The
Free City/Town of Christiania (Fristaden
Christiania)is
a democratic commune, which is partially self-governing neighborhood in
Copenhagen, Denmark. Founded in 1971 as an alternative society, which was
an offfpring of the Danish counter-cultural movement and the student /
hippie squatters uprisings of the 1960s. The community appropriated some
abandoned military/army barracks because the vacant tract and boarded-up
buildings became an eyesore, and they wanted to convert it into a
playground/park. So they knocked down the fence at the corner of
Prinsessegade and Refshalevej streets and began their anarchistic social
experiment. They pride themselves on not being part of the city, the
country, or the European Union. One of the more influential persons was
Jacob Ludvigsen, who published an anarchist newspaper, which widely
announced the proclamation of the free town. The Freetown's
“entrepreneurs” celebrated the City's 30th birthday on September 26,
2001. One of the commune's website can be viewed at:
http://www.christiania.org/

The neighborhood
is accessible only through two main entrances. The people in Christiania
have developed their own set of rules, completely independent of the
Danish government. Having No cars, No stealing, No Guns, No Bulletproof
Vests, and No Hard Drugs. The community rules clearly says that marijuana
is cool...but hard drugs (heroin and cocaine) are absolutely forbidden.

Famous for its
main drag, known as Pusher Street, where hashish (often shortened
to hash) was sold openly from permanent stands until January 4, 2004, the
stands were finally demolished by the owners themselves (without stopping
the hash trade as such, which continued on a person-to-person basis) as a
way of persuading the government to allow the Free Town to continue to
exist. The region negotiated an arrangement with the Danish defense
ministry (which still owns the land) in 1995, and the residents now pay
taxes. The future of the area remains in doubt, though, as Danish
authorities continue to push for its removal. On Pusher Street, cameras
are not allowed, and locals will wave their hands and shout "No
photo!" if they see someone trying to take a picture.

There are two series of coins in Christiania. First, there are a number of
“Fed” (fat, 1 gram) and “Klump” (lump) coins, whose
nicknames/values allude to portions/quantities of hashish, the personal
use of which is semi-legal within the Free City. These began as a fun
experiment, spearheaded by Vagn Sorento Dichmann, and date back to 1976.
In his own words, “the FED was started by 3 guys who get the idea and
had the money,” and the designs on that 1st coin “were made by me and
a friend, 1 side each — but I was the only one who could do the
engraving.” Initially, it was very exciting and required total secrecy,
because they all feared the coin would not be allowed by the Danish
government. But once “the FED popped up on the street”, the
authorities did not raise any objections to their existence — as long as
they did not resemble the states' official coinage. If people had utilized
them to make purchases, as opposed to saving them, thousands (instead of a
few hundred) would have been churned out. Materially, the early ones were
challenging for the novice coin-maker to fashion; the '76 coins, for
example, “were cut in the hand in some steel we found”; starting with
the 2nd coin (1977), he was working solo; the 3rd coin (1984) ended up
being one-sided. But by the 4th coin (1985), Mr. Dichmann “finally found
out how to stamp them in the right way”, thereby improving upon their
overall quality. From then on, both sides of each coin have been perfectly
centered, as was originally intended. It still takes “a lot of
handwork” to make each coin, so mintages have been limited to 200 silver
and 200 copper or bronze. Having become very popular, “they mostly
disappeared in peoples pockets.” They are eagerly anticipated, like a
tradition, partly because each coin is “a little mirror of what was
happened in the year.” In 1997, he was asked to produce a fully
machine-made coin to sell to the many tourists. It would also see regular
hand-to-hand usage “as it was meant to be from the start”. So he
referred them to a friend (Bent Jensen) who would be able to
professionally machine-engrave them. Produced in December of that year,
this coin turned out the be the initial Løn (wage, pay, salary,
compensation), which are used as remuneration for commercial transactions,
services and labor. These act as Christiania's second, more licit monetary
system, and a different coin is minted annually. As circulating coins, the
Løn in particular is referred to as a “complementary currency”.
“I'm going on with the FED,” adds Mr. Dichmann, “which give me much
more pleasure to make.”

If
you're looking for Christiania coins, you can directly contact Vagn
Sorento Dichman (for "Fed" issues) and Ditlev
Nissen (for "Løn" issues). Fed coins were issues in
1976-1977, 1981, 1984-1985, 1988, 1993 and 1997-2006. Klump were issued in
1991 only. Løn were issued in 1997-2008. Christiania also has some anniversary-ralated
medallic and
exonumia, bearing the words " aar" in 1977, " år" in
1981 and 1991. These feature its 06th, 10th and 20th anniversaries
respectively. In
1996 special issues were also made to celebrate their 25th
anniversary. Some NEMO known as HEMP tokens are also believe to be produced
around 1985.

Images of Christiania’s entire output of coinage can be viewed at Mr. Chaim Dov Shiboleth's private
collection, at his website, which was created after his long struggle of
research:
http://www.taedivm.org/christiania1.html